File drawer



April 20, 1954 H, w. REGENHARDT 2,676,083

FILE DRAWER Filed Feb. 24. 1950 v INVENTOR.

HANS WEEGENHARDT ATTORNEYS Patented Apr. 20, 1954 FILEy DRAWER Hans W. Regenhardt, Wooster, Ohio, assigner to Record Files,` Inc., Wooster, Ohio, a. corporation of Ohio Applicationlifehruary 24, 1950, SerialNo. 146,119

4 Claims.

This invention relates to a cabinet for ling. storage, transfer or the like in which anti-friction bearings carry part or all of the weight of the drawer and its contents.

One of the objects of the invention is to provide a simple, sturdy cabinet that will operate freely even though the drawer be heavily loaded, to which end the invention provides anti-friction thrust bearings underlying the drawer on each side of the cabinet but well within the lateral limits of the drawer. Another object is to provide a cabinet of this kind in which there is extensive area contact between the drawer and the thrust bearings forming part of the cabinet. Still another object is to provide means for supporting the rear end ofv the drawer from above. as by means of tracks and cooperating` wheels which likewise are provided with anti-friction elements.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description and from the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a perspective of a cabinet embodying` features of the invention; Figure 2 is a fragmentary detail, on an enlarged scale, of the lower right-hand corner of one of the drawers of the cabinet;l Figure 3 is a similar detail, likewise on an enlarged scale, of the lower right-hand corner of one of the compartments of the cabinet; Fig-l ure 4' is a similar View bringing together the drawer shown in Figure 2 and the compartment shown in Figure 3 to indicate how they cooperate in the cabinet; Figure 5 is a section on a reduced scale through the. forward endY of one of the compartments of a wide cabinet similar to the cabinet of Figures 1 to 4 but embodying four anti-friction thrust bearings at such forward end; and Figure 6 is a detail on an enlarged scale showing the construction of one of the uprights at the rear of one of the drawers forming part of the cabinet in either case.

In Figure 1, the illustrated cabinet, designated I, consists of a metal base section 2 which may be included or omitted, as desired; a metal top section 3 which likewise may be included or omitted, as desired; and one or more intervening metal compartments, of which three, designated 4, v5 and 6, are shown. Compartment 4 is represented as closed by a metal drawer I in fully retracted position; middle compartment 45 is shown with the cooperating drawer `8 in open position; while in the case of compartment I the drawer is omitted entirely for the purpose of revealingv the interior construction and the metal shell 9 which encloses the compartment above, below, on two sides and at the rear;

"Referring to drawer 8, shown as cooperating with compartment 5, front portion lila thereof is of conventional' construction, as are also rear portion Iilb and bottom portion I'I, neither of which appears in Figure i. Between front portion Illa and rear portion Ib are two longitudinally extending side portions one of which, designatedv I2, is on the near side of the drawer and therefore appears in part in Figure 1. The co1'- responding side portion on the far side of drawer 8 is identical but of the nature of a mirror image of side portion I2. At the base of near side portion I'2 is a longitudinally extending reinforcing member I3, which, as seen inA vertical cross section, defines a right angle. As indicated in Figure l2, reinforcing member I3 is spot welded to the side and bottom portions of drawer `8 in such fashion that vertically extending part I'3a thereof extends upward in intimate contact with the lower part of side portion I2. Horizontally extending part I`3b thereof underlies and makes similar contact with the bottom portion II of drawer 8. This provides a rigid corner construction for the drawer and, as willv appear, permits horizontally extending part I3b to serve as a runner that is coextensive with drawer 3 from front to rear thereof.

Drawer 8 is cut away in conventional fashion as at Ii4 in such manner that between front portion I'Il'a and rear portion Ih of the drawer side portion I2 thereof for the most part extends upward to only about half of the overall height of the drawer. At' the extreme rear and on each of the two opposite sides thereof; 'a metal upright I5 is spot welded to the inside surface of drawer 8 the upright on thel near side of the drawer being indicated by dotted lines in Figure 1 and `taking the form shown in full lines in Figure 6. Such upright,which parallels side portion I2 and therefore forms with rear portion I'Db of the drawer a vertically extending right dihedral angle, has near its upper end an offset portion IIB on the outer or near face of which is mounted a wheel II provided with anti-friction elements; e. g., ball or roller bearings, which elements are adapted to rotate about a common horizontal axis A--A. Wheel I'I is mounted on a horizontal threaded stud I which passes through an opening (not shown) in offset portion It of upright I5 and toA the threaded end portion of which a nut I3 r is screwed as indicated in Figure 6, such nut abutting the inner orl far face of upper offset portion I6. 1f desired,A spacers (not shown) may be inter posed between upper oiset. portion ItV and either or both of wheel I'I and, nut I9.

Toward the top of each compartment are two 3 metal tracks 2l, one on each side thereof, with which wheels I1 cooperate. Such tracks are affixed to shell 9 in the relation indicated in the case of compartment toward the upper lefthand corner of Figure l. In each instance, track 2l takes the form of an integral channel-shaped member 22 the base of which abuts and is spot welded to the inside of metal shell Upper flange 23 of track 2i is in contact from end to end thereof with the inner upper surface of shell 9 where the latter forms the top of compartment 6. Lower flange Z, which underlies upper flange 23, may be coextensive therewith except that-at the forward end thereof it is preferably cut away somewhat, as at 25, to facilitate removal of the drawer from the compartment. As is true also of upper iange 23, lower flange 25 may in the interests of rigidity be doubled back on itself, in which case it will present much the same appearance but will of course beof double thickness. I1"his is particularly desirable in the case of lower flange Z in view of the fact that wheels l1 ride on it, in consequence whereof it must support a very substantial part of the weight of the drawer.

Like the other compartments, compartment 6 is made up, along with metal shell 9, of a skeleton comprising a metal frame member 26 of which there may, if desired, be more than one but of which there is usually one at least at the forward end of the compartment. Frame member 26 may conveniently comprise a rectangularlyshaped strip-like element extending continuously around the inside of shell 9, the two-ends preferably meeting in a butt joint near the middle of the base of compartment 6. Overlying rectangular frame member 26 in the region in which the two ends thereof abut is a metal reinforcing strip 21 of generally similar size and shape but extending only from the far side wall to the near side wall of the compartment. Reinforcing strip 21 is spot welded or otherwise affixed to rectangular frame member 26; the latter is itself fastened. as by spot welding, to metal shell 9.

Near the opposite ends 0f reinforcing strip 21, circular openings are drilled through the assembly comprising reinforcing strip 21, frame member 26 and shell 9. At the upper end, each of such openings is counterbored to provide an annular shoulder 28 in reinforcing ,strip 21. A thrust bearing 36 of suitable shape is positioned in each such opening, being held in place therein by a press t. Such thrust bearing is preferably of the nature of an anti-friction bearing, such as a ball or roller bearing, that is so mounted that the elements thereof rotate about a common vertical axis B-B. As indicated in Figure 4 of the drawings, such axis is within the lateral limits not only of the compartment but also of the cooperating drawer; the reason for this disposition of bearings 33 is so that they can cooperate with runners l3b on the bottom of the drawer and facilitate movement of the drawer into and out of retracted position, this notwithstanding the fa-ct that they carry a substantial part of the load imposed by the drawer and its contents.

As indicated in Figure 3, each bearing 30 consists of a laterally fianged outer race 3| the flange 3Ia of which is received in and correspends in height and shape to the counterbore forming shoulder 29a; a laterally flanged rotatable inner race 32 the flange 32a of which extends similarly to the flange Sia forming part of outer race 3i, but unlike the latter, extends upward to a point somewhat above the level of reinforcing strip 21; a series of anti-friction elements 33 held in place for rotation about vertical axis B-B between outer race 3| and inner race 32; and, underlying anti-friction elements 33 at the unilanged lower end of inner race 32, a retaining ring 34 which is fixed to and rotates with inner race-32. At their flanged upper ends, the two races present the appearance of an externally stepped hollow cylinder, the stepped aspect resulting from the fact that flange 32a does and flange 3| a does not extend above the level of reinforcing strip 21; at their unanged lower ends. the two races appear as spaced hollow cylinders between which are to be seen anti-friction elements 33 and retaining ring 34, the latter in close Y association with inner race 32.

Bearings 30 extend through frame member 26 to the lower side thereof, preferably being flush with shell 9 as indicated 'in Figures 3 and 4; this fact, together with the fact that the bearings are relatively shallow, keeps lost space within the,

compartment at a minimum.

As shown in Figure 4, horizontally extending portion l3b of reinforcing member I3 makes contact with and in fact rides after the fashion of a` runner upon flange 32a of inner race 32. Such contact is area contact extending over a substantial part, up to as much as one-half, of the the weight of its contents. necessarily, the outer edge of ange 32a is rounded somewhat so as to minimize the likelihood of deleterious frictional engagement between a rough or sharp edge on flange 32a and the lower face of horizontally extending portion l3b of reinforcing member I3. With this arrangement, it is possible to pull or push thedrawer out of or into closed position with relatively little eifort, friction at the forward end of` the compartment being minimized by the presence of thrust bearings 38 and friction at the rear q. end of the drawerbeing held to a minimum byv the presence of the anti-friction bearings formf ing part of wheels l1 at the upper ends of uprights l 5.

Figure 5 illustrates how it is possible to adapt the invention to a wide compartment; for example, a compartment having a width of 36".` In such case, it is simply necessary to incorpo- 'y rate additional thrust bearings 30 in frame member 26 and reinforcing member 21 at one or moreY places between the thrust bearings near the opposite ends of reinforcing strip 21, at the sametime fastening to the bottom portion of the over-- lying drawer a corresponding number of flat strips- 40 adapted to coact with such additional thrust bearings after the fashion of the horizontally ex-Y tending parts |31) of reinforcing members I3. In the arrangement shown in Figure 5, two strips 40' are shown, the corresponding thrust bearings being located in juxtaposition to them but inward-n lyof them in the sense that the thrust bearings Y are offset laterally toward the longitudinal central axis of the bottom of the compartment. In"v the interest of distributing the weight of the drawer as uniformly as may be practicable, the

thrust bearings are preferably spaced equally lengthwise of frame member 26 and reinforcingv member 21.

It 'is apparent that although these construc-A tions, representing preferred embodiments of thel invention, provide *Y important advantages, some,.-

f these same advantages may be realized by further modications of the constructions illustrated in the drawings. Thus it is possible, for example, to dispense with uprights l and tracks 2l and, instead, to provide a series o thrust bearings similar to bearings 30 at regular intervals lengthwise of the compartment, each in approximately the same location relative to the side walls of the compartment as the thrust bearings at the forward end thereof. By doing so, the weight of the drawer and its contents, rather than being carried in part by uprights I5, will be carried entirely by two or more series of thrust bearings. Although the preferred material is metal, particularly, a ferrous metal such as steel lending itself to 'spot welding, it is apparent that other materials, particularly wood, may be used for many of the major parts of the cabinet. f

It is intended that the patent shall cover, by summarization the appended claims, Whatever features of patentable novelty reside in the invention.

I claim:

l. A cabinet including a frame; a, plurality of walls supported by said frame; a drawer movable into and out of a retracted position within said walls; a plurality of thrust bearing assemblies, mounted in openings in a horizontally extending portion of the frame underlying said drawer; each of said assemblies consisting of a stationary outer race, a horizontally rotatable inner race, and anti-friction means between said inner and outer races; each of said inner races having its upper face raised above said horizontally extending portion of the frame for acentric surface contact with the bottom of said drawer.

2. A cabinet as in claim 1 in which each bearing assembly is held by a press lt in a corresponding opening in the frame.

3. A cabinet as in claim 1 in which there are two bearing assemblies at the forward end of the compartment, one toward the left-hand side and one toward the right-hand side of the frame.

4. A cabinet as in claim 1 in which there are more than two bearing assemblies at the forward end of the compartment.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 838,037 Maclean Dec. 11, 1906 1,097,562 Sherer May 19, 1914 1,438,333 Ruwitch `Dec. 12, 1922 1,743,255 Vervoort Jan. 14, 1930 1,890,216 De Lisle Dec. 6, 1932 1,970,439 Townsend Aug. 14, 1934 2,088,093 Richter July 27, 1937 2,196,215 Kraus Apr. 9, 1940 2,223,071 Koch Nov. 26, 1940 

